Elon Musk revealed a observe addressed to Twitter advertisers on his account this morning, the day earlier than his court-ordered deadline to shut his $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform. Within the quick deal with, Musk — who’s at present in San Francisco and spending the week at Twitter HQ — explains to Twitter advertisers why he’s motivated to purchase the platform.
“There was a lot hypothesis about why I purchased Twitter and what I take into consideration promoting,” Musk wrote. “Most of it has been mistaken.”
Musk repeated among the main speaking factors that he has been stating since he first introduced the acquisition in April. He believes in Twitter’s potential as a “widespread digital city sq.,” however he’s apprehensive that “social media will splinter into far proper wing and much left wing echo chambers” as conventional media continues towards its “relentless pursuit of clicks.”
“That’s the reason I purchased Twitter. I didn’t do it as a result of it could be straightforward. I didn’t to it to earn more money,” he defined. “I did it to attempt to assist humanity, whom I really like.”
None of those declarations are significantly illuminating — Musk mentioned in April that he “doesn’t care about the economics” of shopping for Twitter. Spending $44 billion on a struggling enterprise isn’t the best enterprise transfer, but it surely’s one thing you could accomplish out of a way of warped obligation to humanity if you end up the richest man on the planet (and ultimately on our neighboring red planet too, most likely).
However Musk truly slipped in one thing right here that’s mildly reassuring, although it’s typically a problem to take him at his word.
Musk has regularly touted the significance of free speech in his acquisition of Twitter, even mentioning it in his letter to the company board when he first introduced his intent to amass the platform.
“I invested in Twitter as I imagine in its potential to be the platform at no cost speech across the globe, and I imagine free speech is a societal crucial for a functioning democracy,” Musk wrote in April. “Nevertheless, since making my funding I now notice the corporate will neither thrive nor serve this societal crucial in its present kind.”
“… Twitter has extraordinary potential,” he added. “I’ll unlock it.”
But Twitter’s present content material pointers aren’t as stringent as his declarations would lead you to imagine. Past prohibiting criminality, the platform bans hateful conduct (attacking or threatening folks primarily based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, faith, incapacity, and many others.), depictions of graphic violence, promotion of suicide or self-harm, and many others. The platform doesn’t even censor pornographic content material, as long as it doesn’t seem in a dwell video or a profile header.
In right now’s letter, although, Musk appears to be considerably conscious of the truth that “something goes!” is a content material moderation coverage that’s doomed to fail.
“Twitter clearly can not turn out to be a free-for-all hellscape, the place something might be mentioned with no penalties!” he wrote. “Along with adhering to the legal guidelines of the land, our platform have to be heat and welcoming to all, the place you possibly can select your required expertise in keeping with your preferences, simply as you possibly can select, for instance, to see films or play video video games starting from all ages to mature.”
It’s unclear how he plans to make Twitter “heat and welcoming,” although, with out flouting content material pointers that goal to protect the most vulnerable users on the platform.
He ends the letter by telling advertisers that Twitter aspires to “be probably the most revered promoting platform on the earth that strengthens your model and grows your enterprise.”
Lastly, I’ve to take an inexpensive shot… Musk didn’t use alt text when posting these three text-heavy screenshots of his letter to advertisers this morning. To be truthful, most individuals I observe don’t repeatedly use alt text (but they should!), so it is a good likelihood to name our presumptive fowl app overlord in. Hey, Elon! If you happen to actually need Twitter to be a public city sq., it is best to use alt textual content to guarantee that folks with vision-related disabilities can have interaction within the dialog too!
